Russia stages massive surprise war games on Black Sea (VIDEO)

A ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet during large-scale military exercises Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered while flying back from the South African Republic to Moscow. (Screen shot of a video of Zvezda TV channel). (RIA Novosti) / RIA Novosti

The Russian Navy in the Black Sea was ordered to conduct unscheduled drills early this morning. The naval training put in motion dozens of warships, military aircraft and armored vehicles, and thousands of marines.

The drills started early in the morning, when President Vladimir
Putin, who was returning from Durban, South Africa, to Sochi aboard
Air Force One, ordered Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to alert the
Black Sea fleet, as well as the regional Air Force and troops.

Shoigu opened an envelope delivered to him at 4:00am Moscow
time, and only then learned of the planned war games.

The Russian naval drills came as a surprise not only to the
Russian armed forces, but also for neighboring countries’
militaries as well, which were forced to rub sleep from their eyes
and rush to their duties as up to 30 Russian battleships left port.
The battleships operating from the Russian naval base in Sevastopol
in Crimea, Ukraine, were also alerted.

Defense Ministry press secretary Igor Konashenkov told Interfax
that the drills “engaged over 7,100 troops, around 250 armored
vehicles, some 50 cannons, up to 20 fighter jets and helicopters
and about 30 various warships.”

“The training partly involves Air Forces, rapid deployment
paratrooper divisions, Marines, special forces of the Intelligence
Service of Russia’s General staff,” presidential press
secretary Dmitry Peskov said, adding that at least three airborne
insertions are planned during the exercises.

The troops and vehicles made a 500-kilometer march to assigned
shooting ranges for target practice. The warships also conducted
firing exercises in which the Russian Air Force practiced
supporting naval and ground forces.

According to international practices, Russia remains within its
rights not to inform any country about the military drills, given
the large number of soldiers taking part in the war games, Peskov
said. He also did not excluded possibility of President Putin
personally inspecting the ongoing military training: The city of
Sochi is situated on the Black Sea, very close to the training
zones.

Spontaneous training missions such as this are apparently set to
become routine in the Russian military. "If we recall the speech
of the President at the Collegium of the Ministry of Defense some
time ago, you remember his words that the similar practice of
unannounced inspections will actively continue,” Peskov
explained.

In February, the Russian military conducted an unannounced
combat readiness drills for the first time in 20 years. The
exercises at the time involved around 7,000 troops, 40 military
aircraft and hundreds of armored vehicles.

The drills in the Black Sea coincided with a huge long-range
aviation exercise by the Russian Air Force. A range of strategic
bombers – such as the supersonic Tu-160, Tu-95MC, Tu-22M3, Ilyushin
flying tankers, A-50 AWACS aircrafts, Su-27 fighter jets and
supersonic MiG-31 interceptors – conducted over 60 missions at
three ranges in various regions of the country.